A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed

HOW ODD THAT MASSACRES MOSTLY HAPPEN IN "GUN-FREE ZONES"! When will the brain-dead Left wake up and draw the obvious conclusion? Gun bans kill kids

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

President Trump: Repeal the Unconstitutional Gun Free School Zone Act

A promise made by Donald Trump during the campaign was to remove gun free school zones. The federal gun free school zone law has been an abominable infringement on the Second Amendment.

It has no justification as anything other than an infringement on the right of Americans to bear arms. It does not improve safety. It does not protect "sensitive places". It serves no legitimate purpose.

It has already been struck down once by the Supreme Court.

The Gun Free School Zone act creates an illusory "zone" where most people are forbidden from bearing arms. The zone exists within 1,000 feet from the property line of any school. It is unmarked and mostly unenforced.

It was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1995 in the famous U.S. v Lopez decision, where the Court concluded that there was no interstate commerce involved in a person bearing a firearm within a thousand feet of a school. That was the correct decision.

President Clinton immediately pushed through a replacement bill, the Gun Free School Zone Act of 1995, with a few minor changes. The change that was supposed to make the law acceptable to the Constitution was that it only applied to guns that had been "involved" in interstate commerce.

That is distinction without a difference. Everything is "involved" in interstate commerce. The molecules of oxygen that you breath have crossed state lines. The ore that was used to create the steel used to make a gun barrel crossed state and international borders. If that is not enough, the water used to cool the turbines that created the electricity to power the motor that turned the machine to shape the gun barrel, crossed state lines. This is the insane thinking that has made the phrase "interstate commerce" a nullity. The original law was struck down because everything is *not* interstate commerce, and the legislature cannot make it so simply by so stating.

The Gun Free School Zone law is a direct affront to the Second Amendment. In U.S. v Lopez, the Second Amendment was not argued. The Heller and McDonald decisions had not yet been decided. But to ban the bearing of arms from public places anywhere within a thousand feed of a school is clearly an infringement of the first order.

The 20 years of existence of the current Gun Free School Zone Act have resulted in a tiny number of cases, virtually all of which involve concurrent other crimes. The act has no purpose other than to create precedent that the federal government has the power to disarm anyone, anywhere it desires. It might need to put the word "school" in such a power grab, to grant a fig leaf of deflection for justification. Many believe the lack of enforcement is from a desire not to have a case tested in court.

A Trump administration can attack the law from two directions. One is the obvious, frontal approach. Have the Congress repeal the law. It is plausible, and it could work. Members of Congress take an oath to uphold the Constitution. The second is to create a test case to bring the law in front of a constitutionalist Supreme Court, to be struck down on both Commerce Clause and Second Amendment grounds.

A sympathetic case could be made where a U.S. Attorney prosecutes an otherwise blameless black woman for possessing a legal firearm within a thousand feet of a crime ridden school in an inner city, or perhaps a Native American within a thousand feet of a small school in Wyoming.

Creating a test case is the method that was used by the Franklin Roosevelt administration in U.S v. Miller. The prime actor in U.S. v Miller was Judge Heartsill Ragon, a Roosevelt ally, the Chuck Schumer of his day.

Heartsill Ragon was the representative from Arkansas who was supported by the KKK for his election in 1922. He introduced and managed to get passed, the ban on selling pistols through the post office, the first federal regulation of gun sales. Judge Ragon was appointed by Franklin Roosevelt. Ragon created the Miller case, selected the defense attorney, the defendants, and requireing the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court. It was a complete set-up, created and orchestrated by a Roosevelt appointee.

A school zone case could be found or created and guided through the courts. Today, the process is longer, but it could be done.

Perhaps both avenues should be pursued. They would reinforce each other. The judicial branch could be used as reason to push forward with the legislative solution. Uncertainty in the legislative solution would give impetus to the judicial one.

5 comments:

That is one of the points Trump has stated let the military carry. Then there would be no reason civilians could not carry on military bases. A gun culture society is a safe and respectful society. if every one is carrying not too many get out of line. there will always be someone that is a trouble maker, when they make trouble they can always be weighted down with lead from all directions.

Since the right to carry has absolutely nothing to do with commerce, common sense says the commerce clause could not be used. just another over reach of the USSC. there are many USSC incompetent rulings that are merely political trash. The congress actually has the ability to pass laws that over turn USSC rulings. a right to life law would over turn Roe v Wade. I'm wondering why the ruling in the federal district court of the Mariana Islands is not being promoted nation wide. It ruled no permit could be required. the one thousand dollar import tax was also shot down.

I drive a school bus and it makes my skin crawl knowing that I have to leave "my kids" defenseless because of the federal ban on carrying in or near a school. (Company policy is another complication but I'm not worried about that one.)

I'm obviously not a threat to school kids but I realize what a "soft" terrorist target a loaded school bus presents.

Background

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” -- Thomas Jefferson

Syndicated columnist Charley Reese (1937-2013): "Gun control by definition affects only honest people. When a politician tells you he wants to forbid you from owning a firearm or force you to get a license, he is telling you he doesn’t trust you. That’s an insult. ... Gun control is not about guns or crime. It is about an elite that fears and despises the common people."

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles -- Jeff Cooper (1920-2006)

Note for non-American readers: Crime reports from America which describe an offender just as a "teen" or "teenager" almost invariably mean a BLACK teenager.

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

How much do you know about Trayvon Martin? Did you recognize him in the picture above? If not you may need to know more about him. It's all here (Backups here and here)

“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” -- Robert A. Heinlein